Itunes reorganized and erased my original music files ;(

I keep all of my music on an external hard drive (Western Digital passport 320) and had it organized very specifically. I recently imported it all into itunes to put onto my ipod and checked "keep itunes music folder organized" with the location on my external drive. I thought this meant there would be a copy organized in itunes style. But what ended up happening was my music is now completely unrecognizable; there are a million more folders and songs are not in their proper place. There is NO way I can reorganize this because many of the mp3s were organized by folder and the names of the songs were track 1 etc.
Is there anything I can do to restore my previous organization?

Thanks Chris. Another question for you. I cannot authorize my computer now. The error message says that there was an error storing your authorization information on this computer. The required directory was not found or has a permission error. Correct this permission problem and try again, or deauthorizse this computer if the permissions cannot be changed.
Well I deauthorized all in the settings in iTunes, not it won't let me authorize it now,
Any suggestions?
Thanks

Similar Messages

My PC computer was wiped (virus) including itunes. How do I transfer the many playlists and music to the new re-installed itunes?? Ipod is synced to old itunes. I have all original music files on external hard drive. Please help?

My PC computer was wiped (virus) including itunes. How do I transfer the many playlists and music on my ipod to the new re-installed itunes?? Ipod is synced to old itunes. I have all original music files on external hard drive. Please help?
New itunes is trying to wipe the ipod. But have many many playlists (many hours making) which I want to save. Any help would be appreciated.

If you want to just extract the playlists from your iPod, plug it in iTunes. When it appears under devices, right->click on it and choose Export Playlists. Save them to a location such as your desktop and them import them into your library once you have copied and imported all of your music back into it.
See this older post from another forum member Zevoneer covering the different methods and software available to assist you with the task of copying content from your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452022?start=0&tstart=0
B-rock

Upgraded to iTunes 6 and cant find my music files

I upgraded to version 6 today and afterwards almost all of my files give me the error message: file could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?
I lost a lot of music i purchased through iTunes and I dont know how to get it back, any help would be much appreciated.

it has always been very basic to always maintain a backup copy of your computer. Use your backup copy to put everything back.

HT3842 Does iTunes store the original music file and copy it into a separate folder? If i delete the original file from finder will it remove it from my iTunes library?

Hi, on my last PC when transferring music to my new MacBook Pro i noticed i had about 6 duplicated of each song in every album i took hours in removing them.
I Just wondered Does iTunes store the original music file and then copy it into a separate folder?
If i delete the original file from finder will it remove it from my iTunes library or vice versa. I didnt want to lose any music like i have some how managed to on my old computer.
Or should i keep both files of it in the Music folder and also iTunes library folder?
Which is best ?

DrewPowell wrote:
I Just wondered Does iTunes store the original music file and then copy it into a separate folder?
It does both at the same time.
When you add files to iTunes, it copies them into /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/ folder. The original file remains where it was.
You can drag a file to /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/Automatically add to iTunes/ folder.
This will add to iTunes and move it to /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/.
I keep a shortcut of this folder on my desktop then simply drag files to the shortcut to add to iTunes.
Then there are no "extra" files around.

When I plug in iPhone (5.1.1) to computer, playlists show up on the iPhone (when plugged in), that do not appear when it is not plugged in. And I can't erase them. I have iTunes match, and deleted all my music on the iPhone, but that had no effect.

When I plug in iPhone (5.1.1) to computer, playlists show up on the iPhone (when plugged in), that do not appear when it is not plugged in. And I can't erase them. I have iTunes match, and deleted all my music on the iPhone, but that had no effect on the phantom playlist that shows up on the PC when I plug in the iPhone to the PC. I cannot manually move songs or playlists from the PC to the iPhone
Help greatly appreciated.

Unplug your Iphone out of your computer and replug it back in. It took me several times before I could do this

How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7

How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7. HP computer intel Dual Core. Thanks for any help!

Hey idw3,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities, and thanks for the question. Follow the instructions on this article to move your iTunes Media folder to an external hard drive:
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Regards,
David

Does iTunes match need to locate the actual files or just see its record in your library database? I am currently traveling in US and I have US and Australian iTunes accounts. But all my music files are on a hard drive in Australia.

Does iTunes match need to locate the actual files or just see its record in your library database? I am currently traveling in US and I have US and Australian iTunes accounts. But all my music files are on a hard drive in Australia. Can I start using itunes music match while I am travelling without the actual music files attached to my itunes?

In your situation I strongly recommend you read over that KB article. The international iTunes Stores are not cross-compatible.
My understanding of how it would work is that when activating iTunes Match on your US Store account, any songs you have in your iTunes Library that were purchased from the AUS Store account will NOT be matched. As I understand it, those files will be uploaded (which means you need the files on a local HDD). I also do not think it is possible to have iTunes Match active on more than one store ID on the same computer. But since iTunes Match is not available internationally yet, that point is moot for the moment.
To be honest you might want to wait until the service is available internationally so you can guage how will it will serve you.

How can I get iTunes to locate and play all my music files?

How can I get iTunes to locate and play all my music files?

I have this problem too. I am researching now. Here is what I know so far. If you right click a song then get ifo the it will say Protected AAC or purchased AAC. Protected wont play on sonos, purchased will play on sonos. It seems that all my protected were purchased 2005 to 2009 or so. I am trying to find out if apply will convert these for a small dfee or if I use the itunes cloud these tunes will convert for me. downloading and reloading is not an option for me. Pretty much a money grab by apple either way. I am sure Steve is smiling.

Cannot locate original music file error message???

cannot locate original music file error message ??? i transferred to a new laptop then some of my music collection seems to get this message .

This happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout,or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
tt2

Need an expert help solve linking original music files

All my iTunes music files now have an exclamation mark ( ! ) next to them. The error says unable to loacate original music file. I choose to locate the file, and I am able to find the file. When I find the file in "my music" folder, I see all my albums. If I open the album file I can find the original music file and I can link it successfully so that that particular song will play correctly from iTunes.
My problem is that I have almost 4,000 songs listed in my iTunes library. I can't possilby take each file and link each one manually through the My Music folder to the Album folder and then find the song. There must be an easier way, or I am doing this incorrectly.
I would certainly appreciate anyone's expertise.

I believe I followed the directions: I closed iTunes. I renamed the MY MUSIC file to MY MUSIC 1. (this is where all the music files were located). I reopened iTunes, then dragged the MY MUSIC folder into the open iTunes window. Now I have duplicates of all my music files in iTunes, but both sets get the exclamaion mark that original file cannot be located. Perhaps this works for MAC, but not Windows.
Still looking for any solutions. Thank you.

How do I find and include pre-existing music files on my PC?

I'm new to iTunes and believe that I should be able to find and include pre-existing music files on my PC?
I've found out how to show the menu bar but I can't see how to do the above except file/folder by file/folder.

Hello there, LeighCenturion.
The following Knowledge Base article provides instruction on how to add content from your computer to iTunes:
Adding music and other content to iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1473#2
Specifically:
Adding content on your computer to iTunes
iTunes helps you add digital audio and video files on your computer directly to your iTunes library. You can add audio files that are in AAC, MP3, WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless, or Audible.com (.aa) format. If you have unprotected WMA content, iTunes for Windows can convert these files to one of these formats. You can also add video content in QuickTime or MPEG-4 format to iTunes. To learn how to add these files to iTunes follow the steps below.
Open iTunes
From the File menu, choose one of the following choices:
MacAdd to Library
Windows
Add File to Library
Add Folder to Library
Navigate to and select the file or folder that you want to add
If iTunes is set to "Copy files to the iTunes Music folder when adding to library," iTunes will copy all content that is added to the iTunes library to the iTunes Music folder. To adjust this setting or change the location of this folder, go to the Advanced tab in iTunes Preferences.
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro.

I am using itunes 10 and trying to consolidate my files. I keep getting the error "Copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long". How can I indentify what file is causing this problem or resolve this issue?

I am using itunes 10 and trying to consolidate my files. I keep getting the error "Copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long". How can I indentify what file is causing this problem or resolve this issue?

BUMP
Yes, I just get that message. I don't see how I could investigate this problem.
I didn't mention that this happened when I was consolidating my library, not copying files to another computer.
In other words, I'm using a "normal" itunes procedure, itunes won't complete it, and won't tell me exactly why or how to figure out how to fix it...
Is there at least some easy way to tell which files were successfully copied to my itunes music folder so I can work on moving the uncopied files?
Can anybody help me?

? After updating my iTunes match, I noticed that some music files were no longer listed on my cloud on my laptop. They are still listed on my iPhone. These are files imported to the cloud from legitimate CDs.

Just updated iTunes Cloud. Noticed that some music files are missing, entire playlists. They were here a few hours ago, now they are not.
But they are still on the cloud menu on my smartphone.
Files uploaded to cloud from CDs, legit, no boots or anything like that.
My iTunes is 10/7.0.21. I have the newer version on a desktop and don't much care for it, so have resisted updating on the laptop, which is my primary computer.
I've rebooted the computer, turned off iTunes Match and turned it back on again. No change.
Lots of questions. How can my cloud catalog be different on different devices? How can I get this stuff back on my lap-top cloud? Anyone else having problems like this? I'm trying to trim my physical collection by importing stuff to the cloud and discarding the physical media. Am I shooting myself in the metaphorical foot?
Suggestions much appreciated.

You might want to post this over in the iTunes Match forum.

Broken Korean and Japanese fonts on music files.

I get broken Korean and Japanese fonts on music files.
It shows up broken as a file and on itunes when I play it.
How can I have this fixed?
I have 3 other laptops that are not Mac and on those laptops it shows up just fine.
Tried adding a language pack or something still doesn't work.
Its been like this when I purchased it.

I get broken Korean and Japanese fonts on music files.
It shows up broken as a file and on itunes when I play it.
How can I have this fixed?
I have 3 other laptops that are not Mac and on those laptops it shows up just fine.
Tried adding a language pack or something still doesn't work.
Its been like this when I purchased it.

I hooked my ipod to a different computer and lost all my music files. Any way of getting them back?

Hey, I haven't had a computer for a few months so I hooked up to another computer to get updates and while syncing on itunes I lost all of my music files. I can't find them on the computer or ipod. Anybody know if I can get them back?

If the music was loaded from CDs then unfortunately not, unless you have access to the old computer or the CDs themselves.
If the music was purchased from iTunes and your iPod is running the current version of the software then you can go into the iTunes app on the iPod and there is a purchased section where you can re-download music you have already purchased at no cost.

Itunes reorganized and erased my original music files ;(

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for